1. Field of the Invention
The invention is related to a method for reading media information, and, more particularly, to a method for stably reading media information from optical recording media on which a label may be printed.
2. Description of the Related Art
Optical discs have been developed recently which allow data to be recorded on a data surface of the disc, and a label with a desired design to be printed on a non-data, or label surface opposite the data surface of the disk. Labels are typically transferred onto the label surface of the disc using a laser etching technology commonly referred to as LightScribe, in which a laser burns or etches an image onto a specially prepared, non-data side of a LightScribe optical disc.
A layout of an exemplary label surface of this type of recording media is shown in FIG. 1, and FIG. 2 illustrates a control feature outer ring (CFOR) area located in the control feature zone of the exemplary recording media shown in FIG. 1. The CFOR area includes an index mark indicative of the CFOR area, and media information such as a media ID, in which the media ID is classified by three non-continuous fields and recorded therein.
When data is recorded to a data recording surface of a disc, the data recording surface generates a tracking guide signal, such as a Wobble signal, allowing a tracking servo operation which compensates for eccentricity of the disc to be performed. However, a label surface of an optical disc such as, for example, the LightScribe disc discussed above, is not equipped generate a guide signal, and thus a printing operation on the label surface of the disc may be easily affected by eccentricity of the disc.
In order to print a label on the label surface of this type of recording media, the recording media is inserted into an optical disc drive, and an optical pick-up moves to the CFOR area using the index mark and reads media information such as, for example, media ID, from the CFOR area. The media information, which may include media ID classified by three non-continuous fields, is sequentially read and then transmitted to an external host, such as, for example, a personal computer.
The host compares the transmitted media ID with a media ID stored in a database, and then determines whether the media ID has been normally read from the disc. If any one of the three classified media IDs is not normally read, due to, for example an eccentricity component, the optical pick-up is returned to the CFOR area and the media information is read once again. This process is repeated until the required information is normally read.
There are disadvantages to this method in that, when an operation for reading information from the CFOR area experiences instability due to, for example, an eccentricity component of the recording media, the continuous reading of information from the CFOR area until the required media information is obtained is relatively time consuming, thus delaying a recording operation on the label surface of the recording media.